:chat!

hichris123

01:49

You made it to public beta!

Feeds is so lazy.

3

Q: Building a foundation for vi/vim knowledge

This site will shortly enter public beta. With that change in status will come fresh opportunities: visibility via search engines and throughout the Stack Exchange network, a team of moderators chosen from within the community, and a path to obtaining the status of a full-fledged member of the St...

Doorknob

Ha!

We did it!

Take that, people from SE team that said vi.SE was a terrible idea and we should feel terrible! :P

@ViMeta go away

Seth

We're public!

muru

03:21

\o\|o|/o/

Seth

Doorknob

I don't think that's how arms are supposed to work

Seth

Clearly you wouldn't know.. DOORKNOB! :p

muru

:'D

muru

04:01

@Carpetsmoker you have been warned. :P

1

A: Who are our nominees for the moderator positions?

I would like to nominate @CarpetSmoker as my first choice for moderator. His high reputation makes him an obvious candidate, but that's not my only consideration in making this nomination. Not only has he been busy earning points on the main site, he has also been highly active in chat and meta...

Vi Meta

08:39

0

Q: Tags for visual select vs. visual mode

We have a visual-mode tag and a visual-select tag. The problem is that the term "visual mode" is overloaded: there's visual mode and there's the :visual command to return from Ex mode to Normal mode. How shall we resolve this mess?

discussion tags

Carpetsmoker

09:18

Public beta :o

I wasn't really expecting that, actually

200_success

09:46

I was also expecting a struggle.

(removed)

Rich

Wow

Carpetsmoker

10:15

To be fair, I think the SE people have a good point with their concerns, though

Rich

Yeah.

muru

@Carpetsmoker you haven't accepted 200_success's nomination yet. O.o

Carpetsmoker

@muru :-) Yeah, I need to edit the post and write a bit about myself, I think ... At work now, no time :-(

muru

10:30

No hurry.. We can relax a bit now that the site has achance. :)

200_success

11:10

@200_success But the question is about using vimdiff to do that, so just vimdiff about be enough, IMHO — Carpetsmoker 2 mins ago

I'm OK with that.

But I've already flooded the front page with enough retagging for today, I think.

Carpetsmoker

11:36

@200_success :-)

I added it as a synonym suggestion: vi.stackexchange.com/tags/vimdiff/synonyms

Vi Meta

15:05

1

Q: How do we exit public beta (aka what are the criteria)?

Now we've made it into public beta (yay!), in a similar vein to this question, what are the criteria (objective or subjective) we need to hit to have this site exit public beta and become a fully-fledged SE site?

discussion

derobert

16:39

Ummm... Why are we trying to make so many synonyms? Anyone typing in 'diff' will see 'vimdiff'. We just need to get rid of 'diff'.

Now that we're out of private beta, it should be harder for tags to be created. So we should get fewer new duplicates. We just need to clean up the old ones.

user4704

16:57

@derobert What's wrong with having the synonym then?

derobert

@JoshPetrie Well, for one thing they're much harder to get rid of if we actually wind up needing a diff.

Carpetsmoker

@JoshPetrie meta.vi.stackexchange.com/a/1211/51 ... FYI

@derobert Removing diff is also fine; but I don't think we need to tag questions with both vimdiff and diff.

derobert

If nothing else, they add clutter to the tag complete box, the tags page, etc.

@Carpetsmoker No, we don't. I suggest removing diff.

Carpetsmoker

And it's done :-)

derobert

Though hypothetically maybe we need diff for something else in the future. (Say, the Unix diff command. That's how vim patches are made—or at least the format they're in, for example.) Or maybe another vi-clone has a diff mode, then its weird (and probably confusing) that we have diff -> vimdiff.

@Carpetsmoker Thanks, I don't have the rep yet to edit without sending it through the queue.

Carpetsmoker

17:07

For the diff format, you could use filetype-diff

user4704

@derobert How so? I mean beyond the fact that tag management and bulk tag operations basically suck and/or don't exist on SE anyway?

derobert

@Carpetsmoker Yep. And for the command unix-diff or something.

user4704

@Carpetsmoker Uh oh.

Carpetsmoker

We'll see when (or even if) those questions show up :-)

derobert

@JoshPetrie any reasonably high rep user can create a tag. Doesn't undoing a synonym require a diamond mod?

user4704

17:08

@derobert I don't know, I've never had to do it. That's why I was asking :D

Carpetsmoker

I think you can only "suggest" a synonym

And it then needs votes

user4704

That is true.

user4704

Unless you are a moderator. I suppose at this point, since we're in public beta, nobody can even make synonyms at all any more? Do the rep limits go up to the usual levels at public beta?

Carpetsmoker

vi.stackexchange.com/tags/synonyms

derobert

@JoshPetrie Yeah, I'm pretty sure that there isn't a way to do it without being a mod. I think diamond mods can do it, else it'd require a dev.

Carpetsmoker

17:10

I suggested the cut-copy-paste -> yank one when I had 2k rep and had all the privileges

It still didn't get "autoapproved"

user4704

Sometimes I wish there was a way to like... I want to view gamedev as a "regular user." Because I don't remember what a regular user can and can't do.

Carpetsmoker

You can create a new account

I don't think that's disallowed, unless you use it to upvote your own posts and such

user4704

Sure, but then I have to farm it for reputation up to the desired privledge gate, which takes forever.

user4704

And then if something related to a lower priv level changes I'd have to do it again :D

Carpetsmoker

Your SO account has 4k rep, so you can check on SO ;-)

user4704

17:12

(it's totally not a very useful feature so I can see why it doesn't exist, but every once in a while)

200_success

Would a filetype-vim tag be worthwhile, or is vimrc close enough for this question?

4

Q: How can I get vim to stop putting comments in front of new lines?

I'm editing my .vimrc file, and I am including comments. When I have a comment like this: " example comment And then hit enter at the end of the line after finishing the comment, the next line is automatically set up as a comment (the quotes are automatically inserted): " example comment " ...

vimrc comments

@derobert I agree that tag should be harder to create. By preemptively creating synonyms, we can prevent certain tags from appearing because they will be canonicalized immediately.

Carpetsmoker

@200_success I think it's different. vimrc seems to be used mostly for questions about configuring vim (:set foo, autocmd, etc), and filetype-vim is about the /usr/share/vim/vim74/*/vim.vim files

derobert

@200_success I'd go with filetype-vim. There are other vim files you edit besides vimrc. Scripts, for example.

200_success

Will the distinction be clear enough to the uninitiated?

Carpetsmoker

I didn't add the tag btw because that would make the question vim-specific

And I thought it would be better to keep it a more general question

derobert

17:27

@200_success They're harder to create now that the rep requirement is higher.

200_success

Well, it's clearly about editing .vimrc

Carpetsmoker

Well, it's really about setting formatoptions.

10

Q: How to comment out a set of lines which are selected in visual mode?

How do I comment out multiple in visual mode selected lines? How do I make it language specific? For example, if the first 4 lines are selected: def foo(a,b): for each in (a,b): print each return a+b print "2" The operation of a command/macro should result in this (in python):...

ide visual-mode comments

derobert

@Carpetsmoker That'd be a reasonable tag too. Or maybe just "formatting" or something.

Carpetsmoker

Doesn't have a filetype-python

200_success

Some tags just tend to keep sprouting up, regardless of the rep requirement.

Carpetsmoker

17:28

Because the answers can be applies to all languages ... Same to this question

derobert

@200_success Yes, if a tag keeps coming back despite reasonable attempts to stop it, synonym it (if it makes sense) or get it blacklisted.

200_success

formatoptions is the answer. Not necessarily obvious to the asker.

Carpetsmoker

I think the current tags are good. It's about configuring vim (vimrc) and about comments (comments) .. Maybe format could be added ...

derobert

@200_success Sure. The asker makes a first stab at tagging, but ultimately tags belong to the community. I'm not sure we really need a tag for every option and command, I doubt it.

(Of course, there is :help formatting, which is about something else. So the name could be tricky.)

Well, actually, related, and it mentions formatoptions, so...

200_success

It's also more about the process of editing .vimrc itself, which is why I suggest filetype-vim.

I don't feel strongly about it. You can decide.

derobert

17:33

It's definitely something an expert in editing vim files would know.

Carpetsmoker

@200_success Well, that's just this specific example; but the question really applies to a wide range of languages ...

I think this is one of thoses cases where you can "hijack" a question to answer a commonly encountered problem

derobert

vi.stackexchange.com/help/privileges says add tags is currently 150, BTW. So that's higher than it was, I think, but not as high as it'd be on a non-beta site.

200_success

OK, I can agree with that interpretation.

Carpetsmoker

Well, the number of new tags hasn't been that bad the last few days?

derobert

@Carpetsmoker I think you've hit on the solution.

200_success

17:36

In my experience, 150 is about right for a new beta site, but too low for a mature beta site. Nevertheless, there will be some "problematic" tags that we have to manage actively, or blacklist, or preempt by synonymizing.

derobert

Yep. Our question volume is low enough to keep an eye on it, though. Also we should start working on tag wiki excerpts.

Carpetsmoker

Yeah, I was hesitant to do that earlier, since I sort of expected the site to not make it past private beta :-/

The tag I've seen re-rear it's head the most often so far is python

derobert

@Carpetsmoker Indeed, I was surprised to get that email last night. Expected the emacs conspiracy to leave us in private beta forever.

Carpetsmoker

(is re-rear a word)?

derobert

@Carpetsmoker No idea. It can be if you use it enough :-P

Carpetsmoker

17:40

haha, yeah, that's how it works

derobert

We have filetype-python and vimscript-python. Is the later for using vim's :python and similar?

Carpetsmoker

Yes

200_success

Sorry, I have to go now, but go ahead and keep discussing. I'll catch up later.

Carpetsmoker

Well, I'm off to home in 5 mins :-)

derobert

Submitting tag wikis excerpts for those two.

Apparently there is already a pending one for vimscript-python. I added one for filetype-python

Carpetsmoker

17:45

I just did for vimscript-python

It's annoying, I wrote the vimrc description, but wasn't able to submit it due to a pending edit (which was eventually refused) ..

derobert

Yeah, I can't even see what you submitted for vimscript-python because I don't have enough rep.

Carpetsmoker

I lost my tag wiki editing privileges when the site went public beta, which is slightly annoying :-(

derobert

@Carpetsmoker Well, you just need to get appointed mod then you don't have to worry again :-P

Sukminder

18:58

Looking at this:

5

Q: Automatically add a closing " or ' when inserting one, but only if the cursor isn't inside a string already

I've defined mappings in my vimrc to automatically enter close parentheses and braces when I enter opening ones with inoremap ( ()<esc>i. I'd like to do the same for " and ', but only when the cursor currently isn't inside a string - as inside a string ' is probably an apostrophe rather than a s...

vimrc vimscript

i thought of using syn* functions and detect if inside string. But stuck. Is it OK to to ask how to fix / write a script (with mapping) related to another question?

Sukminder

19:20

OK. I missed <expr> in my mapping ... :P

Carpetsmoker

19:33

@Sukminder To reply anyway: yeah, it's fine to ask a (specific) question about a problem you encounter while solving/answering another question.

Why should it not be?

Sukminder

Indeed, why not. I'll better get some sleep.

Carpetsmoker

20:11

:-)

Carpetsmoker

21:24

0

Q: How do I debug my vimrc file?

I have a problem in Vim, and I think it may be in my vimrc file (or have been told it could be my vimrc file). How do I verify this? And if it is my vimrc file, how do I know what exactly it is?

discussion community-wiki

Please improve! It's wiki, so anyone can edit

Vi Meta

0

Q: How do I debug my vimrc file?

I have a problem in Vim, and I think it may be in my vimrc file (or have been told it could be my vimrc file). How do I verify this? And if it is my vimrc file, how do I know what exactly it is?

discussion community-wiki

derobert

21:39

@Carpetsmoker I can't edit it. Edit link is grayed out.

I don't think you managed to create that answer as wiki. Also, why is it on meta???

Or is it just on meta until its ready?

Carpetsmoker

21:55

I thought meta would be better

since it's a very broad question

(but I don't really care, I just want somewhere to link to with instructions whenever)

And I indeed forgot to make it a wiki >_< (it is now)

Gilles

22:08

@Carpetsmoker Why didn't you repost on main?

It doesn't belong on meta but it would be nice to have on main

and your answer looked nice

Gilles

22:21

@Carpetsmoker thank you

Carpetsmoker

@Gilles I did repost it on main?

1

Q: How do I debug my vimrc file?

I have a problem in Vim, and I think it may be in my vimrc file (or have been told it could be my vimrc file). How do I verify this? And if it is my vimrc file, how do I know what exactly it is?

vimrc

Gilles

@Carpetsmoker yes, I saw now. When I got the notification from your comment on meta, you hadn't reposted, I wondered why

Carpetsmoker

No, I was waiting for other opinions,

I didn't delete it until @Doorknob also said it should be on main

Opening this page (the chat) lowers the volume of my music

So annoying...

Seth

22:38

This something you vim experts can answer?

0

Q: How to generete allegro5 tags for vim with ctags?

I was recently working on project with GTK2 in vim (with OmniCppComplete plugin). I I generated tags with ctags -R --c++-kinds=+p --fields=+iaS --extra=+q --sort=yes /usr/include/gkt-2.0/ I did so for cairo and other libraries I needed. Everything was fine, I had all suggestions for all funct...

14.04 gtk vim

Doorknob

Should we add a feed here for Vim questions on other sites?

Gilles

@Doorknob not sure about this. I considered doing it for Emacs but decided not to. I forget why.

maybe because I thought the volume was too large

or maybe because I was leaving it up to the site mods

or maybe because it would encourage answering on the other sites, and routing vi/emacs.se users to other sites is counterproductive for vi/emacs.se

Carpetsmoker

@Doorknob What do you mean with, "add a feed here"? Does that mean vi and vim-tagged questions show up here like the meta questions?

Gilles

@Carpetsmoker yes

Carpetsmoker

Hm, that would be rather high-volume

& add too much noise here, IMHO .. If you want to follow all Vim questions, you can just setup notifications in your account

muru

22:51

@Carpetsmoker maybe not from SO, but questions on U&L, AU won't be too many..

Anyone know of a plugin that completes closing sections (</html>, \end{document}, }, esac, etc.) for HTML, TeX, C, and Shell?

Gilles

Here's a feed for vi(m) questions on all sites: stackexchange.com/filters/170646/vi

user114359

Over at Programmers.SE we found and closed an old off-topic question about Vim too old to migrate. Is there any interest in re-asking it here? programmers.stackexchange.com/q/110160/22815

muru

23:06

That question is a bit unclear to me. It seems OP wants to indent, which is not what retab does, I think.

Seth

We could make them tickers @Gilles >:D

user114359

Fair enough, someone in Prog.SE chat mentioned earlier it might help generate content and get you guys out of beta. I haven't really analyzed the question but it did have some decent answers.

Gilles

@Seth I don't care anymore, I have a userscript that hides them

Seth

@muru So are you saying I should reopen that vim question on AU?

muru

@Seth Yep.

Seth

23:10

I didn't see the revision history.. (too lazy to switch chat rooms :P)

@muru k, done.

muru

Thanks!

Seth

@Gilles troll fail :p

muru

@Snowman Is the OP of that question still an active user?

Carpetsmoker

300 questions :-)

200_success

23:32

@Snowman Seems like it's just some combination of …

18

Q: Re-indenting badly indented code

I like the smart-indent feature of Vim, it allows me to create well-indented code blocks. I regularly copy/paste code in to buffers, but that code is often poorly formatted. What would be ideal is to "re-process" the code through the smart-indent system. Is such a thing possible? For example,...

indentation ide

and

18

Q: How to replace tabs with spaces?

Is it possible to convert tabs to spaces, while maintaining text alignment? Simply replacing only works usefully when there are no leading characters.

indentation tab-characters

Carpetsmoker

What's the value of migrating 4 year old questions from other sites?

user114359

I don't think there is much value, I am just asking because some people in Prog.SE chat suggested it. Just in case.

Gilles

@Carpetsmoker if they're off-topic on the source site, it can be a way to save them. But it's impossible anyway: questions that are more than 60 days old cannot be migrated, even by mods.

Carpetsmoker

I certainly won't be motivated to answer them, since there is no problem to solve (the OP is long gone) unless they're really, really good questions, in which case they were probably migrated to SO a while ago...

Ah, okay

I see kenorb did an edit on that question btw :-)

muru

I really need to learn how to write better questons. <sigh>

user114359

23:41

The important thing is that if someone googles a problem and a SE question pops up, the googler gets a good answer. Since there are similar questions here, I linked to those two questions on the original (closed) question at Prog.SE.

muru

"Obviousness is not universal." Quote of the Day! :D

2

Carpetsmoker

There are also some questions that exist both on vi.SE and on SO (often older questions), where we have better answers than what's on SO ... I considered leaving comments on a few of them, but didn't want to "spam" vi.SE too much all over SO ...

muru

23:59

How do I undo a inoremap?

Transcript for